492 Edward Livingston Yonmans. 



By science I understand that knowledge which is gained 

 by the intellect of the order of things around us, of which 

 we form a part, and of the laws by which that order is gov- 

 erned. Religion I understand essentially to be the feeling 

 entertained toward that Infinite Being, Power, or Cause, by 

 whatever name called, of which all things are the manifesta- 

 tion, and which is regarded and worshipped as the Creator 

 and Ruler of the Universe. It is the office of science to ex- 

 plore the works of God; of religion to deal with the senti- 

 ments and emotions which go out toward the Divine Au- 

 thor of these works. But if praise and adoration are due to 

 the Creator because of the harmony and grandeur displayed 

 in the creation, are not they working to distinctly religious 

 ends who reveal to us these grand characteristics of Divine 

 achievement ? To whom are we indebted for a knowledge 

 of the order that God has instituted in the universe ? It is 

 to the men whose appreciation of it has been so high that 

 they have given their lives to the discovery of its truths ; 

 and if these truths are divine, is not the research in a pre- 

 eminent sense a religious work ? Among the ancients so 

 little was known of the operations of Nature that nothing 

 like a general order or system of laws was suspected. The 

 natural, in fact, was not differentiated in conception from 

 the supernatural. The whole scheme of things was bedded in 

 superstition and mysticism, and the human mind was given 

 over to the conceits and absurdities of an unbridled imagi- 

 nation. It was only with the rise of modern science, in the 

 recent centuries, that the idea of an order of Nature began 

 to dawn upon the world of thought. Copernicus led the 

 way by destroying the geocentric astronomy, and with it 

 the anthropocentric system of ideas that had grown up 

 around it. His theory of the planetary motions opened the 

 door to the conception of their true laws and causes. Kep- 

 ler and Galileo verified and extended his work, and pre- 

 pared the way for Newton, who struck out the universal 



